[Dixielandjazz] The French Connection to New Orleans

[Steve barbone]

Not specifically on topic, however should be of interest to ,some on the
DJML and there is a mention of New Orleans Jazz, "what the world loves",
however brief.

Cheers,
Steve 


France Reconnects to an Old Acquaintance, la Nouvelle Orléans

By ADAM NOSSITER - November 5, 2005 - NY Times

NEW ORLEANS, Nov. 4 - It's been just over 200 years since the French gave up
on their unloved, swampy corner of North America here, but some piece of it
has continued to inhabit the Gallic imagination ever since.

That attachment paid off for Louisiana, in money and relief supplies, after
Hurricane Katrina, and on Friday it took a more symbolic turn in the form of
a quick but apparently heartfelt visit to this stricken city by the French
minister of culture, Renaud Donnedieu de Vabres.

The minister came to announce a series of cultural initiatives: a planned
exhibition here with the help of the Louvre and other French museums, and
benefit concerts across France. But since he was the highest-ranking
foreigner to come to this city since the storm (barely trumping Prince
Charles, who was due later in the day), his visit was just as much the
reaffirmation of a link that has never quite disappeared.

A hundred years ago, there were households here where business was
transacted in French and elderly ladies in black guarded against the
incursion of English. On Friday, as Mr. Donnedieu de Vabres gazed
affectionately at old maps of New Orleans, drawn up by Frenchmen and
inscribed in French, he looked with wonder at some of the earliest letters
ever dispatched from this city, written in French nearly 300 years ago, and
he posed in a French Quarter courtyard that if more Spanish in style than
French, at least was distinctly un-American.

Earlier, at the New Orleans City Hall, the minister made a series of
French-inflected statements that somehow got at the mysterious way the
mother country persists in the spiritual fabric of this city.

Mr. Donnedieu de Vabres, scion of a family of distinguished civil servants,
said he had come to New Orleans to "express the solidarity of the French
people on a basis very concrete" and to "support some one of your goals." He
told the half-baffled local reporters: "You are such a beautiful city, we
love and admire you. We want to be à côté de vous" - or by your side.

The New Orleans mayor, C. Ray Nagin, beamed and confessed to his ignorance
of French, but said he loved hearing the language spoken anyway. "The French
are part of our history, part of our soul, and now they are definitely part
of our future," the mayor told reporters, afterward saying France's response
to the disaster had been "awesome." As for the projected exhibition of about
50 artworks that the Louvre and other museums are pledging to lend to the
museum here, "it's first class, it's world class," Mr. Nagin said, reaching
for superlatives.

"This is the first time a country has stepped up with this level of
specificity," he said.

The Louvre's director, Henri Loyrette, who accompanied the minister, said
the works had not yet been chosen but would make up "a gesture of return, of
gratitude."

"Given the special links that exist, this is perfectly normal., Mr. Loyrette
said, recalling the solid connections Degas, for one, had with this city.

Help has been both concrete and symbolic. French companies have given $18.5
million in aid. The government has donated 20 tons of emergency supplies.
French military divers have helped clear waterways. The Ministry of Foreign
Affairs is pledging $180,000 to help French-oriented schools in Louisiana,
and the city of Clermont-Ferrand alone has given $54,000 to the battered
schools of New Orleans. The benefit concerts in France will help displaced
Louisiana musicians get back on their feet. "Jazz in New Orleans - that's
what the world loves," Mr. Donnedieu de Vabres told the reporters.

Many of the details in this aid initiative remain to be worked out. The
French, for example, are pledging to help rebuild the historic Tremé
neighborhood, a seedbed of Creole culture, but their role is not yet
entirely clear. Mr. Donnedieu de Vabres said France stood ready to help for
"everything that has to do with memory, so that we can reconstitute memory."

For the moment, the minister said he had been much affected by his brief
view of the devastation here. On the way in, he passed through the
browned-out, recently flooded Lakeview area and said he had been very struck
by the "disappearance of life" in the neighborhood. "I felt a great
sadness," Mr. Donnedieu de Vabres said.

Despite the city's continued, pressing need for outside help, the French are
nonetheless not quite prepared to reconsider the deal transacted between
Napoleon and Thomas Jefferson in 1803.

"Perhaps I'll pose the question," the minister said, smiling.